JABBA THE AGNIVORE: LETTING THEM AWAY WITH IT

The Sunday Mail had the story of the poor guy that's lived and run a takeaway in Fife for the past twenty-five years. He's closing up after having been beaten up straight after the attack by Islamic fundamentalists in Paris. The comments are sadly predictable, you know the kind of stuff: Islam's not a race, Muslims hate us all, they bring it on themselves etc. etc. It's as if the thugs that attacked this guy are heroes and patriots! In reality, we all know that racist cunts look for any excuse and the Paris attack was a handy cover for a bit of old-fashioned 'Paki-bashing'. We all know the type; thick-as-fuck neds, hiding behind a flag.

My comment on the story didn't go down too well with the DR readers. I pointed out that ignoring, and implicitly condoning, one face of racism means that you're giving credibility and acceptance to all racists. If you're teaching people, or Peeppul, that it's okay to hate, then what else are they going to do? The hatefest we witness whenever Sevco are on the TV or radio is rarely mentioned but when it is it is always spoken about in completely the wrong context. Our media talks of the 'Old Firm' and how 'one side's as bad as the other' but that's, as I say, putting the songs of The Peeppul in the wrong context. Vile songs about the Ibrox disaster, Hillsborough etc. can be heard at different grounds but nowhere do you hear songs of hatred directed at a whole religion and a whole people except at Ibrox and whichever grounds are unlucky enough to host Sevco. Their songs should be discussed in the same context as the vile, racist and sectarian chants of the likes of the BNP, the National Front or Britain First. But they never are.

Our media hacks laughingly condemn the practice of 'Whatabootery' while frequently indulging in it themselves. They always compare the songs of The Peeppul with those of other teams' supporters, most notably Celtic's, and in so doing implicitly condone the sectarian and racist hatred on display at Ibrox. 'They're just songs,' we're told, and it's probably true that many of those singing don't really subscribe to the views expressed in the songs. The songs, however, provide a justification for those that do subscribe to these twisted views and act upon them. Anyone that hates Catholics and beats somebody up or stabs them simply because he is a Catholic can feel perfectly justified in his actions; after all, his hatred is vociferously supported on a near-weekly basis and implicitly condoned by our authorities and our media. He can regurgitate the excuses provided for him by others: that Catholics and the Irish are all terrorists or terrorist supporters.

It's only a small step from hating Catholics to hating Muslims and from hating Irish people to hating blacks and Asians. The racist and bigot can use the same rationalisations provided by our authorities and media; after all, aren't Muslims all terrorists or terrorist supporters? It's surely no coincidence that Ibrox has always acted as a recruiting ground for right-wing racists and any racist and anti-Muslim rallies seen on the news always has at least one Rangers top or scarf visible among the crowd. And yet our authorities and media continually fail to see the connection. Allowing sectarian and racist bigotry to be voiced by The Peeppul means that, by extension, all sectarian and racist bigotry is given justification. Our media, football authorities and police forced that guy in Fife out of his shop just as much as the ones that threw the kicks and punches.

Of course, setting discussion of The Peeppul's hatred in the wrong context helps to confuse the issue entirely and leads to ridiculous conclusions about Celtic supporters, and others, being just as sectarian and racist. There was some kind of mix-up at Celtic News Now yesterday, which meant that a link was provided to a site full of Hunnish lies, called 'If You Know Their History'. The post linked to was accusing Celtic supporters of racism and to 'prove' the point, there was a video of Celtic supporters at Stranraer letting off flares and singing something about 'Brits out'. Let's leave aside the business of the flares (which is stupid, no matter who's doing it) and concentrate on that 'racism'. It just goes to show how ridiculous the situation is in Scotland when some clown can say that chanting 'Brits out' is in any way racist. That would mean that every nation that was once part of the Empire is guilty of racism, wanting the 'Brits out' as they did. It's a nonsensical idea and only in Scotland could anyone even begin to suggest such a thing.

To support his assertion that Celtic supporters are guilty of racism, this clown dredges up the old chestnut of bananas being thrown onto the pitch when Mark Walters first took to the field. That was nearly thirty years ago! Such incidents, regrettably, were quite common back then and The Peeppul themselves did the same thing at Easter Road when Hibs brought on a black player. That's not 'Whatabootery'; it's simply a statement of fact. Fortunately, most of us have moved on from those days; except, of course, for The Peeppul, who are still as bigoted as ever. Only in Scotland would such folk seek justification for their own racism by pointing to an incident that happened before many of the current supporters were even born!

Meanwhile, both Celtic and Sevco have progressed to the next round of the Scottish Cup. Both teams won against teams from the First Division but the way the matches have been reported upon are entirely different. According to our media, Celtic put in a workmanlike performance, merely going through the motions in a lacklustre display. On the other hand, Sevco put on a dazzling display, beating the 'Blue Brazil' 5-1, turning on the style, apparently, to do so (although we won't mention the two penalties). I didn't see either game but it seems to me that a top team meeting a team from lower down the leagues shouldn't have to break too much of a sweat. From what I've heard about Celtic they rarely came out of first gear, which is what you would expect since no team wants to risk injuries or suspensions this early in a competition. The very fact that Sevco had to put in a performance only goes to show that they're nowhere near the top team the media would have us believe.

Before a ball was even kicked at Ibrox, 'Warbs' was talking about his team doing well in the Europa League! It seems that in his mind he's already got the Scottish Cup won. God, he's not even got the Petrofac Cup safely under lock and key yet! There are a lot of Europe's top teams that take part in the Europa League, having parachuted down from the Champions League, and yet 'Warbs' thinks he's going to take them all on with a team full of loan players, players on temporary contracts and various Action Man's Heids. He's going to need a bigger hat!

PRESENTING:

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO THE PEEPPUL